Demon Hunter
by Shattered-k3
Summary: Shale wakes up in a zombie apocalypse with a headache, bits of memory, and claws. He is able to meet up with some survivors, but what was his life like before the zombies?  Sorry for the long wait people, but high school is :
1. Chapter 1

**AAHH! Sorry people I am really new at this, being my first FanFiction and all, and I deleted the other one. Here it is back up though, with spelling fixed. XD**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Valve, their games, or their characters. (I've never even played the gameO.o)**

"Owwww……." My head throbbed as a struggled to rise from the wooden floor without falling, I could tell it was wood from the texture of it. I failed, and vertigo caused me to trip sideways into a wall. I slid to the floor and groaned. The pounding of my head put pressure on the back of my eyes, causing me to clutch my head with my hands. I froze, the hands holding my head couldn't be mine, because the fingers reached the top of my head and were rigid. I slowly opened my eyes, squinting at first until my eyes adjusted to the light streaming in from an opening to my right. The first thing that came into focus was my hair, covering my eyes in a thin russet veil. I flicked it to the side and looked down into my palms. I couldn't tell how long I'd been out, but this just wasn't possible. My fingers were elongated onto claws nearly six inches long. The thick bones jutting from them ended in razor sharp points, great for slashing. _Great for a hunter_, I thought, shuddering. I tore my eyes away from the blades to glance around the room. It was slightly rectangular and had a single window about half way up the wall opposite the hallway. It seemed to have been a bedroom due to the closet in the wall next to the hallway and the remains of what seemed to be a bed frame, all piled in a mound under the window with some clothes and splinters of wood. The wood had probably once been the door to the room. The image was unusual somehow, something was off, but my head ached to such a great extent that it took me a while to figure it out. The entire room was bathed in an orange glow, giving it an odd quality. My attention was immediately directed to the window, which appeared to be splattered with some sort of red paint. . I took a deep breath to clear my head and realized the stuff was blood. I could smell it, along with the smell of grime, gasoline, and a cocktail of other odors as well. I did a double take. Wait, blood?

"What's going on?" I said, or at least, tried to say. The words seemed to scrape their way up my throat before being spat out in a jumbled mess that sounded like a growl. I coughed reflexively to the feeling. I shakily got to my feet after a few tries and cautiously took a step forward. My balance seemed off somehow. Instinctively I leaned down onto all fours. I took a few practice steps toward the window, my claws gouging the wood. I got to the window and rose into the balls of my feet. That felt better, more natural. I pulled my hood down to shield my eyes from the light as I inspected the window. My eyes seemed more sensitive now. One brush on the glass with my knuckle told me the blood was on the outside. The sound like nails on a chalkboard reverberated through the room as I left four deep grooves in the window, just to see what would happen. Something shrieked from the other side, and my whole body tensed. As an object flew toward the window I ducked, and the hand that shattered the glass almost seemed to move in slow motion. I could feel energy building in my legs as I crouched down, my hands touching the ground. And then I pounced. The energy released from the jump propelled me through the remainder of the window and over the edge of the second story of the building across the street! I rolled once to get rid of momentum and came to a stop. I peered over the end of the roof down at the street, and almost fell off. I couldn't remember any specific details about almost anything, but the vague recollection of sights and sounds was nothing like this. Bodies littered the streets, demonic figures wandered around, and the blood bathed everything in red. The creature that had shattered the window was now moving on with glass protruding from its arm. The figure was humanoid, but seemed like something out of a horror movie. Their skin was a pale gray, with milk white eyes and bloody expressions. They stumbled around, seemingly without direction. And then there was the sound of car alarm going off nearby, and they sprinted! All the demons moved so fast it seemed like they had been waiting for it the whole time. Then the sound of gunfire echoed through the streets, and I decided to follow them. I leaned down into a crouch once again and felt the energy build up in my legs like they were springs. I looked at the building across the street and kicked off the I was flying through the air, and a bloodcurdling scream escaped my lips. I landed on the third floor and made a mental note to avoid making that noise again.

After a few more jumps I crouched, three stories above chilling scene. The demonic figures from earlier were charging at four individuals who were struggling to stem the tide. There was a large man who wore biker clothes blasting a shotgun, an older man who was dressed in army fatigues firing an rifle, a dark skinned guy (any other way to say this? stupid sensitive subjects) who wore a tie and stood out against the paleness of the horde firing a machinegun, and a teenage girl wearing a red sweater wielding two pistols.

"Reloading!" shouted the older man as he slapped a new clip into his weapon.

I watched with wide eyes as the demons were mown down by the hundreds of rounds screaming though the air. The four moved as a team to defend themselves and seemed to be gaining the upper hand when I smelled smoke, and heard a choking cough.

"I think I hear a-" Started the girl when suddenly a long rope shot out of the shadows and wrapped around her torso. It jerked her off her feet and away from the other three. With her arms bound to her sides she could only kick and struggle.

"ZOEY!" yelled the man wearing the tie.

The remainder of the group attempted to come to her aid, but try as they might they were now at a disadvantage against the aberrations. They were hardly able to hold off the horde, who it seemed had realized their enemy's disadvantage.

I focused on the darkness of the alleyway and came to a shocking discovery; the rope was the thing's tongue! It dragged the girl, Zoey, toward itself and raised two talon-like hands in anticipation of its prey. Impulsively I crouched low and aimed straight for the monster. My jump sent me in an arc high above the street, over the masses, to collide with the thing. A red tint seemed to engulf everything as I slammed it into the ground. Immediately I began to slash at it with my claws, tearing muscle and sinew from bone, and splattering everything within ten feet in blood. It was dead in an instant, much too fast for any fun, so I leapt to my feet, ready for more. I spun around at a noise. Right there only a few feet away was prey, struggling and helpless on the ground. I bared my fangs and pounced, landing with one foot on either side of the prey. I could smell the fear flowing from it in waves. I could see its pupils dilate and hear it scream. I raised my claws to kill.

"HELP ME! PLEASE! SOMEBODY!" Her tears pierced the red veil encompassing my vision, and my claws sank into the concrete next to her head.

What was I doing? The whole point was to _help _her. I shook my head like a dog, trying to clear my head from the blood thirsty influence. Zoey flinched as the other bloody claw came down to steady myself.

"Ihhhsoorrah," I growled.

Her eyes widened as I stared at her. I cleared my throat and tried again.

"I'm sooory," I managed to choke out.

Zoey gasped.

"You can t-talk?" Were the only coherent words she uttered.

I pulled her to her feet with the tongue, and then tightened my grasp to slice it to pieces. I gestured with a single claw before dashing around the corner. I vaguely remembered something about Tae Kwon Do lessons as I spun through the mass of pale figures. The deadly precision was still there, but so was I. My head was clear of bloodlust as all within my range were decapitated, disemboweled, or generally maimed in a brutal fashion. Nothing stood against my weapons and escaped unscathed, and Zoey, several feet back, was gunning down everything still standing with incredibly accurate head shots. It only took a minute to reach the others, but the horde was already dispersing. The others turned toward us as we approached.

"Hunter!" Yelled the biker, while leveling his shotgun at...me?!

I prepared to jump, but then realized that Zoey was still right behind me! I put my arm over her shoulders, behind her neck, and kicked the back of her heel, falling to the ground as the shotgun spat buckshot over our heads.

"What the hell Francis!?" Zoey, from the ground, "You almost shot us!"

"What are you talking about!? That's a _Hunter_!" He exclaimed, jabbing an accusing finger at me.

I cleared my though, feeling I shouldn't get up yet if I wanted to keep my head on my shoulders.

"M-my name's not Huntuuuurr," I rasped.

"Did that thing just talk?" The old guy lowered his weapon slightly.

"Yes, and he also just saved me from that Smoker just now!" She got to her feet, while I just crouched. "So point that gun somewhere else Francis!"

Francis pointed the gun away, but still in my general direction. Tie man shrugged, and they all looked at the older guy in the army fatigues, who seemed to be the leader.

"Wha'd you think Bill?" asked Francis. I wondered what they were talking about.

He sized me up and scratched his beard with his free hand.

"Well, he did save Zoey, and we can use another pair of hands...," Started Bill.

Francis muttered to himself, something about hating Hunters.

"Um, guys? Sorry to break this up, but we need to get to the safehouse, like now," tie guy interjected.

"Louis is right, we need to keep going. We'll get to introductions later when we're safe," Bill concluded, "Let's move people!"

"Where?" I looked questioningly at Zoey.

"We're going to a safe house. Before all this started the government set up a bunch of them to help survivors," she said as we ran. "Look, there are our directions!" She pointed at big red arrow on a grimy wall.

A few straggling zombies lurched around, barely turning around before they were mown down by a burst of fire. Louis shot the head off one, only to have it's body, minus the head, fall over onto the car parked behind it, and setting off the alarm. The noise was deafening!

"Louis!" exclaimed everyone else, while preparing for the owners of the feet which could be heard running en masse our way.

I leapt up onto the hood of the car in a daze. All I could think about was getting rid of the horrible grating sound! I slammed my hand, fingers pointed downward through the metal to rip out the disturbance. As soon as the wires were cut, the sound vanished.

"Holy (insert something he might possibly yell at a time like this)!" yelled Francis.

We kept running anyway.

After several blocks we turned the corner to see the bright red of the safe room door.

"Almost there!" gasped Bill.

"Which almost definitely means that something's going to be waiting for us!" complained Francis.

As if on cue, a sob broke shattered the relative quiet of the darkening twilight. We all skidded to a stop, and they looked around, trying to figure out where it was coming from. I pointed toward the red painted door with a confused look. They all looked at me. I blinked.

"You've got to be _kidding_ me!" hissed Louis.

The door was open, and the cries were coming from _inside_ the room.

As we neared the door, Francis leveled his shotgun and moved ahead of the group. I leaned closer to Zoey.

"What's going on?" I half whispered, half growled. I didn't quite have the hang of speaking normally just yet.

"It's a Witch, an Infected that can take a lot of damage," she said. My look prompted her further, "We don't know why they cry."

Something felt odd. Maybe it was the crying, such a human sound, or that I had not yet encountered one, and had little reason to fear it, but I needed to see this "Witch" for myself. I leaned down onto all fours and moved into the room, ignoring the hushed protests behind me, just in time to see Francis approaching a kneeling figure facing away from us. Something that seemed to once be clothes hung in rags from her pale form, and her white hair shuddered with each of her sobs. She started to growl as Francis drew nearer.

"Wait," I hissed.

I probably shouldn't have done that.

Francis, who had been facing the other way, hadn't heard me enter the room, and as a result nearly jumped out of his skin right there. He did, however, fire the gun, which mostly missed her, but startled her all the same. She let out a piercing scream made my ears ring as she leapt to her feet. As she spun around I saw her fingers, elongated into foot long daggers, and then her eyes, glowing yellow without any pupils. She raised her claws and charged at Francis, moving incredibly fast, but not fast enough. I pounced, and instantly I was between them, with my own claws in a vice grip around her wrists. She struggled, but her wrath wasn't directed at me, but at Francis. She was extremely strong, so I had no choice but to wrap my arms around her torso and run through the house to the back room. She continued to shriek and struggle for a few seconds, but then gave a shudder and went limp with sobs. I lowered her to the floor, where she shifted into kneeling position with her head still on my shoulder. I was contemplating what to do when suddenly, something clicked, and I heard. Her sobs were words, not in English, but the meanings were still there.

"W-w-hyyyy.........m-meheh!" (sob sob) "T-theeey......sssshooot attt........meee!.......w-whhhy?" she howled. "I n-nevvvvver.......hurrrrt....a-anyone!"

"Shhhhhh." I whispered. "Don't cry, you're safe now."

She took a deep breath and looked up, her eerie gaze sweeping over me.

"I'll be right back, okay," I breathed, "Stay right here."

I slowly rose to my feet and backed away. She looked back down and her breathing was hitched, but she wasn't crying anymore.

I walked down the hall back to the other room, nearly running into the group.

"What the he-!" started Francis before he was on the floor with my hand over his face.

I hissed.

"No loud noises," I turned to the group, "She's still a Witch, and she'll still attack any of you."

"Mmmmph mm," said Francis, I moved my hand, "And how come she won't attack you?"

A low snarl rumbled in my throat.

"Because I'm like her, a.....what did you call it?"

"An infected," said Zoey.

"Yah that. They still see me as one of them, and I can sort of communicate with them as well."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Sadly enough things haven't changed since the last chapter and as such I still don't own Valve, or their characters. I do own Shale though. ;)**

**Sorry it's heen so long since my last update, I've been really busy and stuff.**

**But anyway, here's the next chapter so tell me what you think, regardless if its good or bad, as long as its not some mindless flaming rant.:D**

"Speaking of which, how come you can talk all of a sudden?" asked Louis.

I blinked.

"Well, my headache's gone…." It was the only thing that had changed since then.

"So, you were grunting before because of a headache?" Francis laughed, the disbelief in his voice evident.

I frowned, "Well what's your excuse then?"

Zoey and Louis laughed, while Bill merely chuckled and said,

"He got yah there Francis."

Francis frowned, "Yah yah, very funny."

"Anyways," I said, "What's going on? I can't really remember anything, but it couldn't have been like this."

It wasn't really a lie. All I could remember were feelings and emotions; and nothing that would have been associated with this kind of hell.

"Well," Zoey seemed to be interested in filling me in, "At first it was just some sickness people heard about in rumors, like "The Green Flu" and "Super Rabies". And then it went from washing hands more often and being more careful about coughing, to riots and lots of people disappearing in just a few days! When it mutated enough to be airborne, millions of people died or became those infected out there. It was out of control. The only ones left as far as we can tell are immune. Even some of the immune are only resistant to the virus in the air; they can still lose it if they're scratched or bitten."

At the end her voice took on a bitter tone, as if she had seen the effects firsthand.

Not wanting to dwell on that last part I prompted her further.

"What about the different ones? There was the one that grabbed you…"

"We call them Special Infected," she said, "There's the Smoker, they give off that smoke and have those nasty tongues-."

"And the Boomers," interjected Bill, "The big fat ones that barf everywhere, and the others are attracted to."

"Tanks," added Louis, "Like a gorilla on steroids."

Francis simply muttered, "Hunters."

"And Witches, you know them," finished Zoey. "The other Hunters scream right before they tackle us to the floor and…yah….."

I glanced down at my claws, awkward.

"Anyway we're trying to get to Mercy Hospital, a chopper told us to go there for evac."

There was silence for a few seconds, before I picked up the sound of the Witch's breathing in the other room.

"So… what now?" I asked.

"Well," said Bill, "We're gonna get ready for tomorrow and then catch some sleep."

"I'll see yah tomorrow, then." I said as I turned.

"Where are you going?" the worry was obvious.

"I'm going to stay with the Witch, to make sure she doesn't lose it," I paused, "Goodnight Zoey."

I heard her, "Oh, g-goodnight then," as I walked down the hall.

I froze at the doorway as the Witch growled, but relaxed when she caught me in her fiendish gaze.

I slowly edged over to where she was kneeling and sat down next to her with my back to the wall.

She was still, and appeared as though she would remain that way, so I leaned back and closed my eyes.

I don't know exactly how long it was, but after what seemed like a few minutes I felt a slight movement in the floor. I cracked my eyes open in time to see her scoot towards me, and then lean on my side.

About ten minutes after that her breathing evened out and she went limp.

She had fallen asleep!

I remember feeling her skin next to mine, and how we both seemed cold, before I leaned back and closed my eyes. There was a bluish haze in my mind as I drifted off to sleep.

xxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxx

I woke up slowly, like trying to get out of a tub of molasses. I felt drained, even though I had just woken up. I was stretching my arms, my eyes still closed, when my arm bumped something. My eyes were immediately open and my pulse quickened, before I remembered where I was. The breath I had been holding escaped with a sigh. The Witch had leaned over during the night, and her back was on the lower part of my torso.

I blinked. Something was different.

The chalk white hair that was there yesterday was gone. Her hair was now a dark brown, almost black. At first she seemed like Zoey, but then she shifted, and I could see her claws, twice as long as mine and razor sharp.

"Mmmmm…." She muttered in her sleep.

I leaned my head over, till I was in view of her face. It had changed to, and looked less gaunt, more peaceful.

She brought one of her claws up and started to rub her eyes with the back of her hand.

"My head….owwnn…" She murmured.

I blinked.

She was still growling, but growling in English… that's the only way to explain it.

She opened her eyes, which were a nice brown, no longer an unnatural yellow, and yawned. Her claws spread wide as she stretched her arms out.

Her double-take would have almost been funny if she hadn't screamed right after.

The sound lasted only for a second, however, because, in her haste to get away from the daggers her hands used to be, she jumped backwards. Her lower back hit my side and her head hit the floor, hard. She must have blacked out, because she went limp. I picked her up under her shoulders and legs, and set her down on the floor in front of me. She was really light.

As she began to stir I kneeled next to her.

"Hello?" I said in what I hoped sounded like a soft voice, "Are you okay?"

Her eyes open a crack.

"Wherrrrrr amm I?" she asked.

"A safe house. Are you okay?"

"Sorrrtaaa…..awwwwm….headaaache…." She slurred her words.

She looked up at me and gasped.

"Yourrrr eyes!"

My eyes? I guessed since we were so close the shadow from my hood didn't hide them. "What's wrong with them?" I asked.

She put her head between her claws.

"I can rrrremember themmm……frooom……lasst nnight?...yahh.. Last night…you saved me." Her slur faded to nothing in the end, she was speaking plain English now.

Then her eyes widened with sudden realization and she looked at her claws, still stained red with blood.

"I….I ki-…..I killed…!" Her eyes filled with tears as she started to hyperventilate.

"Shhh!" I pulled her closer. "Shhhhh…. It's okay….. Shhhh…."

Her frame shuddered as she buried her face in the side of my jacket. I heard the pounding of footsteps coming from the hall before the four Survivors from yesterday skidded to a stop at the door, guns drawn.

They stood there, their looks going from determination to confusion.

"Wha-? Where's the Witch?" Francis seemed disappointed by the lack of something to shoot at.

I looked up, to my right, at the four, but mostly at Francis.

"She's right here. What did you think, she disappeared or something?"

Francis was having a hard time comprehending something that wasn't in your face obvious.

"But that girl's not a Witch," he said it as though I didn't understand something.

I held up her one of her huge talons. "Guess again."

They all jumped.

"Whoa!" Louis pulled up his gun, along with everyone else.

"What the hell is going on kid?" Bill cried.

I could smell the sudden fear come off them in waves. They feared Witches more than almost anything else, so it seemed. She was still shaking too.

"Its fine," I said raising a claw of my own in a gesture of peace, "She's changed, like me."

"What happened?" asked Zoey.

They all relaxed a bit.

"I don't know, but she was like this when I woke up."

"So, what, is she still a Witch then?" Louis asked.

I recalled my first encounter with Zoey, and shuddered inwardly at the memory.

"We're _both_," putting emphasis on the word, "hanging somewhere in between, I think."

"Hmph," Bill grunted, "Well, in between or not, we need to get goin'. Now."

"Alright, alright. Just give us a minute," I grumbled.

As the sound of their footsteps faded down the hallway, I looked down at the girl trying to bury herself in my hoodie. I figured this wasn't going to be as easy.

Her dark curtain of hair parted as she peered up at me. The chocolate pools were sad, and scared, but no longer filled with tears.

"We have to l-leave," her voice caught a little, "now?"

"Yes, we have to keep moving toward the hospital, they're going to be evacuating people from there," I had overheard the other four discussing it yesterday. "That means we will be able to get out of here; hopefully to somewhere safe, okay?"

She nodded and we got to our feet.

"So," I said as we walked through the doorway, "what's your name?"

"It's….. It's Angel," the sound of our footsteps grew more prominent as she paused, "Um, are we going to have to kill those….. Things?

I pulled my hood farther over my eyes before I answered.

"They've lost their minds. They're infected, no longer human, just monsters who want to kill, so it's them or us."

Even with the reasoning, it was too hard to look into her eyes and tell her she would have to do something that had caused her so much pain in the first place.

I never wanted to hurt her, ever.

Keeping the truth would only hurt more, but I could do something to help.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you. You won't have to do anything except hold on; I'll carry you on my back."

As we walked into the room Angel hid herself behind me.

"This is Bill, Zoey, Louis, and Francis," pointing to each in turn, "We're going to work with them to get out of here."

"Done yet kid, or did you want to have a welcoming party first?" teased Bill.

I rolled my eyes. "Yah yah, Bill, we'll go, I just need a gun, and she needs some clothes."

I handed Angel a jacket from a bunch of clothes under the table, then started going through the pile of assorted weapons and ammunitions.

Francis seemed troubled. "What about her?"

"Don't point, it's rude," I said without looking up as Angel cringed next to me, "She's not fighting, end of story."

"How did you-"

I spun around, brandishing two oversized pistols and slapping in two clips from the small pile I'd just stuffed in my pouch.

"I'm a Hunter, remember? I could _smell_ you raising your arm!"

"You little-"

"Alright!" interjected Bill as he unbolted the steel door, "Let's go kick some zombie ass!"

I kneeled down as the others burst into the sunlight, guns blazing, to cut down some wandering infected. Angel wrapped her arms around my neck, claws hidden by the extra large jacket. As I moved into the bloody sunlight, she put her head down on my shoulder. I assumed the sight of newly slain infected scared her as she shuddered.

I caught up with the others, pistols drawn, as a horde of the zombies came sprinting in our direction. I fired a bullet into the heads of the closest infected, who fell like bricks and tripped up a good deal of the others. They fell like dominoes. I turned to Zoey.

"Do you have anything that explodes?" I asked.

"Well there's a pipe bomb-" she started to say.

"Perfect," I grabbed it and activated it, then lobbed into the infected.

The mass of bodies instantly moved toward the beeping cylinder. Since they were already so close together, the initial explosion obliterated ten of them, and broke the bodies of twenty more in the shockwave. We picked off the stragglers with bursts of fire.

"Great tactic kid," said Bill as we continued through the streets, "but how did you know they'd go for them?"

I glanced over at him, "I didn't."

xxxxxxxXXXXXXXxxxxxxxx

Later that day we all crawled into the next safe house, exhausted from the day's slaughter and survival game. I let Angel down for what must have been the fiftieth time that day. She flopped down into a chair and hid herself in the extra large jacket, with the hood up, looking like a little kid. I stretched my arms and back out, stiff from holding her all day, except for the breaks we took on occasion after a large horde had swarmed us in an almost desperate attempts on our lives.

The Special Infected had steered clear of us for some reason, possibly planning their next move. Not that they were exceptionally intelligent, but they definitely had the instinct to survive, and not thrust themselves upon us like their common brethren. I had smelled Smoker a few times, and heard the growling of a Hunter somewhere off in the distance, but they had yet to show themselves.

We each settled into our corners for the night, Angel and I sitting on a blanket I had found in a closet. Zoey kept casting furtive glances over at us, before she too fell asleep.

**I didn't know where to end it but meh...**

**Flame on! 8[O]**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone! I know I'm not really supposed to do this but meh. As explained in thew summary I have school and its a pain. I still have school now but I was reading the story over again and decided to continue it:D Sooooooo any comments, suggestions, questions, or concerns for my mental state are greatly appreciated.**

**I still have to do something with this chapter(?) thing so here's a description of my character and my witch, who's name was not planned but is still ironic.**

**xxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxx**

**Shale:**

stands at a towering: 5'11" (you decide)

Eye color: to be announced

Body type: medium build

Blood type: INFECTED Hunter strain

Favorite color: Purple

Senses: extremely acute (he can hear her breathing in the back room...ok maybe slightly creepy now that I read it...:l)

Strengths: Hunter strain abilities (possibly more?), practiced martial artist

Status: Dead?


End file.
